About seven years ago, I think, a friend from work was looking to rehome three cats. They were his wife's cats, but she left them behind when she ran off with another man. As the house was being sold as part of the divorce proceedings, the cats needed somewhere else to go. The kitten (about six months) and younger cat (about one year old) were rehomed very quickly but, the third cat, ten or eleven years old, did not. I told my friend that I would take her, rather than have her end up in a rescue centre with minimal chance of finding a new home. (Why don't people want the older cats?) She subsequently moved in with me and was very happy. As I lived in a neighbourhood full of cats, I had one of these locking cat flaps. This was great as Scrammy (don't ask) could come and go as she liked, but no one nicked her food or toys. The silly girl would come in to use the litter tray and then go back outside to play (or sleep). She was a wonderful girl. Next door had a neutered male who considered himself the neighbourhood boss cat and had his eyes firmly fixed on teaching Scrammy this fact. Firmly enough fixed on this that he hadn't registered the fact that Scrammy could go through the cat flap and he couldn't.

After several run-ins where Scrammy would come dashing in to avoid the bully, with her inside yowling at him and him outside yowling at her, she work out how to get rid of him and stop him bothering her again. One day, she sat at the back door yowling at him and he was yowling at her and trying to get in. He finally twigged that the cat flap wouldn't open for him, but didn't realise it would for Scrammy. Scrammy upped the yowling volume from loud to deafening and swiped at the cat flap with her paw. The cat flap bopped him one on the nose. After a brief second of astonishment he ran off. After a second similar encounter, he steered well clear of Scrammy *and* the cat flap.

This memory also makes me laugh every time I think about it. As usual, I didn't have a camera handy. Scrammy is now at the Rainbow Bridge and I still miss her. The only cat I ever knew who would look both ways before crossing the road. Many very happy memories.

Copyright © Andrea Fuller
April 12, 2001